A Good Shepherd from Mercy to The Long Paddock

<p>A Shepherd from Mercy to The Long Paddock is the kind of story that feels carved from the land itself red dust cold mornings the smell of lanolin and chalk.</p><p>Ross Cooper's life begins within the stone walls of a Mercy orphanage where obedience is demanded and tenderness is rationed. Escaping into the world of men's work shearing droving surviving he discovers a different kind of faith: one born of mateship hardship and the slow education of the soul.</p><p>By the time Ross stands at the blackboard of a bush school chalk dust on his hands instead of blood he's learned that wisdom doesn't come from sermons or scripture but from listening to the land to the people forgotten by it and to the silence between them.</p><p>Max Barrington's prose is both muscular and lyrical echoing Paterson's romance and Winton's humanity. A Shepherd from Mercy to The Long Paddock is not just one man's journey it's the story of a nation growing up the hard way.</p>